Social recommendations like Facebook likes, comments, and shares, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social media presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that one great post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting socially on Google+ each month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search engine traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, spy on your competitors, identify opportunities for engagement, avert disasters, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific businesses, products, topics, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, social signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by a cross-section of groups that include digital reputation management companies, market research, marketing teams, agencies, sales teams, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various service providers have created tools and solutions to facilitate the active monitoring of a broad range of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict consumer behavior around your brand or products allowing you to respond to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article on social media monitoring tools that are worth checking out and knowing about here:
(Do you know how to effectively track your social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social media signals and improving your social media exposure.
Introducing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s job is simple … change reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can operate … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts with highest number of shares display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of over two thousand websites over a period of three months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping their metrics on “green”. According to the plugin developers, they were able to notice a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, more web traffic and more revenue!)
For more details go here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Here are just some of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
SocialMetricsPro is really easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to change all red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally track and monitor social media activity across leading networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks the social media sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WordPress users with a number of great features. Below we have listed some of those:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Ready to use in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access the latest stats from your WordPress dashboard, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. You can update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when a new version is released.
- Minimal server resources usage. Social reports are compiled very quickly, consuming minimal hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server resources used to compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, post authors, publishing date, or by post type.
- Export Data: You can export filtered data and custom queries to Excel for further analysis. Data can be exported in tab-delimited and comma-separated file formats, and imported to Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just turn more reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are just some testimonials that customers have published about Social Metrics Pro:
“Social Metrics Pro is the essential plugin we use to monitor how our content performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s simple, neat and works precisely as you would expect it. When we work with our clients such as T-Mobile, the .Me domain name registry and others, Social Metrics Pro is the plugin we use to create reports as well as keep track on each bit of content to optimize it for future performance.” Ivan Brezak Brkan, Editor of Netokracija.com, TechCrunch EU Contributor
***
”I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.” James Johnson, Senior Editor at The Inquisitr
Plugin Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical, step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Product Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on a single domain. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This lets you run Social Metrics Pro on all websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Current pricing for SocialMetricsPro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the plugin sells for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product seller when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The Product
As mentioned earlier, Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and shows you how and where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to outperform your competitors on social media.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
***
***